Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

Meet Will Grayson. He’s the guy at school who tries to blend in with the scenery. He doesn’t like to rock the boat and he doesn’t like to get too emotional. “I don’t really understand the point of crying. Also, I feel that crying is almost…totally avoidable if you follow two very simple rules: 1. Don’t care too much. 2. Shut up.” Unfortunately, Will’s best friend Tiny Cooper is his exact opposite: big, loud and flamboyantly gay. And Tiny keeps making Will care—about him, about the musical he’s writing based on his life called “Tiny Dancer,” and about Jane, the uber-smart girl in the Gay-Straight Alliance who likes the band Neutral Milk Hotel as much as Will does and drives an orange Volvo. Will could probably care about Jane if he tried. In fact, he could probably fall in love with her—if he wasn’t so terrified by the idea that she might find out the truth about him: “Not that smart. Not that hot. Not that nice. Not that funny. That’s me: I’m not that.”

Now, meet will grayson. He’s the guy at school who hates everything. “i am constantly torn between killing myself and killing everyone around me.” He feels one emotion—rage, and makes sure everyone knows it. Unfortunately for will, despite his obvious dissing of her, this girl Maura seems to like him although he can’t understand why. “it’s like those people who become friends in prison even though they would never really talk to each other if they weren’t in prison. that’s what maura and i are like, i think.” will’s only solace is chatting online with isaac, a guy he’s never met face to face but who feels like his soulmate. He could probably fall in love with isaac if he let himself. And that’s exactly what he intends to do when makes plans to meet up with isaac in Chicago in, of all ironic places, a porn shop.

…the same porn shop Will Grayson finds himself wandering around after his fake i.d. gets him thrown out of the club he tried to get into with Tiny and Jane. Will Grayson, meet will grayson. Two very different dudes with the same name and the same problems when it comes to matters of the heart. But now that they’ve actually met? Their lives will never be the same…

This epic and utterly unforgettable book brings together two of the biggest and brightest names in YA lit: John Green and David Levithan, both writing as, well, will Grayson. As a result, the levels of smart and funny are off the charts. My advance review copy is chock full of scribbles, giggles, highlights and underlines. And stealing every scene is the irrepressible Tiny, whose sheer exuberance at being alive and being in love helps both Will graysons get their acts together. (The amazing thing about Tiny is that he’s written by both Green and Levithan, who manage to keep him consistently fabulous through the whole book.) Who’s writing who? Well, you’ll just have to read it to find out!

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30 thoughts on “Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan”

I thought I was going to love this book because I love both authors. It started out great — so funny — the voices are authentic. But then the story line just fell flat for me and I couldn’t finish the book after getting to the halfway point.

I love this book! I’ve already passed around the ARC to the other St. Louis Librarians, and I”ll be book-talking it soon. Thanks for writing such a great review, since all I can do is gush inconherantly.

ps. while I really like John Green’s other books, especialy PaperTowns, Will Grayson might be my favorite main character of all of them.

I finished it off, a bit teary, last night. Thought it was great, love both authors though I will say I see a formula in John’s storylines **possible spoiler**:

2 guys, 1 girl. One guy is a sidekick (though here the sidekick role switches a bit). The girl is usually cerebral, standoffish and put on a pedestal by Guy #1. At least here, Jane comes down to earth a bit more than say, Margot or the posthumous presence of Alaska. With the addition of will grayson, the formula changes up a bit, so I can’t be too harsh.

I LOVE John Green. I finished this book in one school day, cuz I couldn’t bring it home because my parents are homophobic. But I FINISHED it. And it was amazing. My friends love it too. And I like the whole vlogbrothers thing on youtube too. John Green FTW! 🙂

I was really surprised that I really liked this one. At first, you kind of get the wrong impression of will grayson, since he sounds eerily depressed, like the book is going to be about him shooting his peers or something. But, as the story goes on, you kind of start to see that there’s a witty, kind guy behind that. Some amazing quotes and life lessons in this book, plus just some funny stuff 🙂 defenitely thinking about actually buying this book.